domingo, 10 de febrero de 2013

MOOCS Collapse?

Every day I read a lot of articles relating to the MOOCs. There are a really boom on this subject. I think that is a
new trend, but also that it is doing a too rapid evolution. I have also read blogs from MOOC students telling about the mess of some of this courses.

I still say that every
university should define a MOOC strategy, but I think that some of them have not
foreseen the consequences and they have entered the MOOC world without a strategy.
Now, there are courses of 40.000 or more students. Teachers cannot afford this quantity of
students. For example, if they want answer the e-mail questions that the
students could make, or to correct any type of exercise, of 40.000
students???. I think its impossible!.

Some of the blog students mentioned the
lack of subject objectives and that there
was no clarity provided on the objective or purpose of the groups as well. They
also talk about the support technical aspects: about server crashes and so on. Some courses have had to be postponed
for these reasons.

I think that a MOOC needs a very different strategy and
technical infrastructure than a traditional on-line course. The concepts and the goals are
different and the teachers, the educational institutions and also the MOOC platforms, must be aware of this. It
is important to define clearly the way they can afford the foreseeable amount of students and how
it can be faced. Anyway, maybe
the MOOCS courses should be only master classes taught by renowed professors and, in my opinion, eliminating tracking and correction of
exercises and questions, and that only can get a certificate of attendance...